Guinevere listened to Arthur's voicemails. He really wanted to meet her and talk to her. She thought about ignoring them but who was she kidding, she was crazy about Arthur and wanted to see him if only to help her get over him.
She was still looking at her phone when it rang.
It was Arthur, she answered, "Hi."
"Oh, hello," he replied as though, he hadn't thought she'd answer his call.
"I'm sorry for calling so late, but I was wondering if you could maybe meet me at Ben's Café tomorrow at ten."
"Okay," she agreed and hung up.
Arthur was already seated at a table at Ben's when she arrived at five minutes to the hour.
"Hi," he said, standing up to greet her, "I'm glad you could make it."
She nodded and sat down.
"I ordered us a pot of tea, and cakes. I hope that's alright." She nodded.
They sat in silence for a while and then she turned to him and said, "You wanted to talk."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry about the way I behaved about the kiss," he said, "I was a total idiot."
"So you said."
Arthur looked at her; it seemed she wasn't going to make this easy for him.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"It's okay."
Arthur decided that however coldly she was acting he would say exactly what he had come to say.
"Do you remember the first time we met?" he asked her.
"How could I forget?" she grimaced, "You almost knocked me over, you were hurrying for a meeting."
"Actually I wasn't," he said.
"You weren't what?"
"Hurrying for a meeting."
"So you almost knocked me over for no reason?" she asked him.
"I was standing at the reception when you walked in," he smiled, that gorgeous smile, "you were wearing a suit, a pale pink skirt suit, and you were smiling about something. You didn't look like you would notice anyone or anything so I decided to make you notice me by bumping into you."
Gwen was looking at him in shock. She remembered that day vividly, it had been her first day of work. As she entered the building, Martha had sent her a funny text, she'd smiled. The next thing she knew she had bumped into a man. A gorgeous angry man, who wasn't too pleased, that she wasn't watching where she was going.
Arthur continued. "You were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, I decided there and then to get your attention. But you ignored me and were all business when we met."
"You're the boss." Gwen told him.
"I imagined that was the reason you were keeping away from me," he grinned, "I got so frustrated until an opportunity presented itself, this week. We had to work together."
"You mean you engineered all that?" she asked him.
"You wouldn't speak to me except about work, called me sir, although I had asked you numerous times to call me Arthur. Finally, we were spending time together, working late, and talking about things other than work. This week has been one of the best of my life."
"So you decided to kiss me and then bring up the whole conflict of interest issue?"
"I kissed you because I have wanted to, since I first saw enter the building. Since you smiled at whatever it was that was making you smile."
"Really?" Gwen asked him, "and the conflict of interest?"
"As you are well aware, there is no conflict of interest issue, personal relationships are allowed at work." He said.
Gwen knew this, which was why she had been hurt.
"I wasn't prepared for how I felt after kissing you."
"What?" Gwen was confused.
"I told you that I've dreamt of kissing you since I first saw you," he said, "but when we kissed, okay, even before we kissed, I knew that I wanted more."
"More?"
"You know me, Guinevere," he said, Gwen, almost melted, he way he said her name was so sexy; "everybody knows that I'm too busy to have relationships. Everybody knows that the company comes first with me. Actually, that isn't true but since it kept away all annoying clingy females, I was okay with it. I was looking for something more and I thought I'd never find it until I saw you."
'What are you saying, Arthur?"
"When we kissed, all questions I'd ever had about finding love were answered and everything fell into place. This scared me so much I decided to nip it in the bud, so to speak. But I'm not scared anymore. Since I saw you in the office its like days have passed instead of hours and it was like I was lost without you, lost and hopeless. What I'm saying Guinevere is that I love you."
Arthur stopped talking; he'd said everything he'd wanted to say.
"Wow."
Gwen kept silent and took a sip of her tea. Arthur watched her; she obviously didn't feel the same way that he did. He was hurt but at least he'd told her the truth. He would wait for her finish her tea, it was the polite thing to do, pay and then leave her alone.
They drank their tea in silence and Arthur paid the bill. He was about to leave when he said, "I guess I'll be off then." He stood up.
"Do want to know what I thought the first time I saw you?" Gwen asked. Arthur sat down.
"I thought this is the man I am going to marry."
Arthur smiled; maybe there was hope for him yet.
"And then you opened your mouth and shouted at me."
They looked at each other and then burst out laughing.
"What are you saying, Guinevere?" he asked her.
"I think I love you too, Arthur Pendragon."
"You think," he began, and then at her look he added, "I can live with that for now."
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